Employment and skills update | 28 April 2023

28 Apr 2023

Migration Review
The review of Australia’s migration system ordered by Minister for Home Affairs Clare O’Neil was released on Thursday. The report is available here. The outline of the government’s migration strategy is available here, and was also the subject of an address by Minister O’Neil at the National Press Club. In essence, the government is considering three critical policy shifts to reform our migration system:

Prioritising the people we need to enhance our security and economic prosperity
Making it simple for migrants and efficient for employers
Delivering outcomes for Australia and migrants post-arrival

The government’s migration strategy contains some quite positive initiatives in terms of simplifying the system and reducing complexity, improvements for small business such as moving the Skilling Australians Fund levy to a monthly payment rather than upfront, and providing greater pathways to permanent residency for all temporary skilled migrants, which is something ACCI has been strongly calling for. The government has also foreshadowed that once a formal role for Jobs and Skills Australia is established in our migration system, many of the additional complexities can be removed (e.g. complex skills lists and labour market testing).

One of the difficulties that has come out of the report (that the minister has accepted) is the raising of the Temporary Skilled Migration Income Threshold (TSMIT) to $70,000, which will make it challenging to bring in certain workers with an average income lower than the threshold. The implementation of this change will need to be closely monitored to ensure that regional and rural business in particular do not face added disadvantage.

You can read ACCI’s media release in response here.

Next steps: During May and June 2023, the federal government will consult state and territory governments and key stakeholders – unions, business groups, and civil society – on the outline of the strategy and these critical policy shifts. The government plans to release the final migration strategy later in 2023.

Meeting with Minister O’Connor
On Monday, Andrew McKellar, ACCI CEO and Natalie Heazlewood, Associate Director Skills, Small Business and Innovation, met with Minister for Skills and Training, Brendan O’Connor, in Melbourne. The meeting was an opportunity to reiterate our support of the formation of Jobs and Skills Australia and make the case that our wide-reaching membership base that makes ACCI an ideal fit to be on the ministerial advisory board. ACCI spoke about the importance of the VET qualifications reform proceeding; it appears the minister wants to go slow on this area until the Jobs and Skills Councils have had the opportunity to properly come online. The minister expects to have a draft 2024 National Agreement on Skills by mid-year for feedback with the states and territories skills ministers, and he is hopeful it will be signed off by September this year.

Employment and skills update | 28 April 2023

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